The city of Parma in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna is Italy’s Capital of Culture in 2020 after Matera was designated European Culture Capital in 2019.

Parma beat competition from fellow finalists Agrigento, Bitonto, Casale Monferrato, Macerata, Merano, Piacenza, Reggio Emilia and Treviso to scoop the top cultural honor. The northern Italian city was selected by a jury that described Parma as “a virtuous and extremely high-quality example of local culturally based planning”.
Throughout 2020 Parma will showcase its unique Italian culture under the slogan “La cultura batte il tempo“, highlighting its past artistic and historic glories with its present-day cultural innovations. Parma boasts one of the oldest universities in the world and is famous for its prosciutto and Parmigiano cheese.
The city also has close links with the world-renowned opera composer Giuseppe Verdi and was the home of Arturo Toscanini who is remembered in Parma with a museum.